Battery brooder



Jan. 14, 1941. w. D. HARVEY BATTERY BVROQDEH.

Filed 0G15. 16, 1939 INVENTOR.

W/L mM Dow HHK vfr ,Patented Jan. 14, 1941 BATTERY Bnoonsn William Dow Harvey, Macomb, lil., assigner to Globe American Corporation, Kokomo, Ind., a'

corporation Application ctober 16, 1939, Serial No. 239,585

1 Claim.

This invention relates to a battery broeder for young fowl or chicks, and particularly to its construction for heating the several superimposed sections or cages. u u In battery broeders it is necessary to provide a source of heat on heated surface in each cage in the battery at some location therein so that young fowl or chicks may periodically warm themselves. It has been common practice to provide such heat l@ by discharging heated air into the sections or cages, by conducting heat through pipes or tubes of various shapes, or by providing each of them with an individual heater. 4

llt is the purpose ofthis invention to improve ,w upon these several means of supplying heat by applying the heat directly to the metal wall of the battery and its several sections by means of a common manifold extending upwardly from a central source of heat and carrying hot lgases 2li which are vented at or near its top. Thus, the hot gases may be discharged from a central oil burning heater, located at the bottom and to one side of the battery, into the manifold so as to pass upwardly therethrough, the manifold includ- 25 ing one wall of each of the battery sections and 4 being'provided with suitable baiiles. Such gases are caused to thereby flow over and contact the battery wall so as to effect the desired heating f the adjacent compartment of each section or cage 30 through convection and radiation. Another feature of the invention resides in th provision of fixed bailles within the manifold and eil'ective with respect to each of the sections for the purpose of securing an even heating thereof 35 lfrom top to bottom by evenly apportioning the heat from the 'rising gases in the manifold to the wall of each section. This is accomplished by arranging the ilxed baiiles to retard the passage of the heated gases upwardly, and thereby posi- 40 tively control the amount of heat absorbed into each section ofthe battery wall. Thus the usual adjustable dampers or bellies are dispensed with as being impractical, and a more emcient heating system with increased simplicity of construction and ease of operation is provided. To this end the fixed bellies are of predetermined arrangement to more eectively maintain vapproximately the same temperature in each compartment.

Other objects and features of the invention l0 will be understood from the accompanying drawingand thefollowingdescription and claim:

Fig. 1 is a rear elevation of a battery broeder showing the heating manifold extending over the rear walls of the several sections or cages.A Fig. j u `2 is the'same as Fig. 1 showing a side elevation.l

thereof with parts broken away. Fig. 3 is a cross section taken on the line 3--3 of Fig. 2.

In the drawing there is shown, for example, a

`five-section battery broeder, it being understood that the battery may comprise any desired num# 5 ber of sections. Such batteries comprise primarily the base frame Ill provided with corner legs I I and casters I2. Each section is formed of the `usual rectangular framework indicated at I3, the frames of each section being superposed one upon the other and bolted together. The frames of each section carry the enclosing grids indicated at I4 to provide the cages, and support the exteriorly moimted feed or water troughs, of the usual character, as indicated at I 4a. The back y1g; wall 0f each section vis provided with a sheet metal closure I5, from which the curtains I6 extend a short distance along each side of the section to-provide a heat retaining compartment associated with each cage. The chicks may huddle against the heated back wall which radiates sufilcient heat into the compartment partially enclosed by the rear walls I5 and curtains I6, to meet the requirements.

-The required heat is supplied by a common manifold or iiue I1 which extends vertically along the back walls of the sections'. The lower end of-said flue. is provided with a ared canopy Il under which an oil burner I9 is positioned to discharge hot gases therein, said burner being fed 3 from a suitable fuel tank 2li controlled by thel valve 2l. u Opposite the flared canopy I8, and interiorly of the Iowermost section, there is provided a guard plate Ilia to protect the chicks from the hot spot in the wall I5 caused by the close 35 proximity ofthe stove and canopy.

The inner wall of the flue comprises a substantial portion of the superimposed back walls II of the respective sections, while the outer wall thereof is slightly spaced from said back walls 4u with its side portions bolted thereto through the flanges 22.

At spaced intervals, and adjacent the upper v portion of each section of the battery, there are provided within the flue, the hot gas baiiies 23, 45'

24, 25, 28 and 21. These banles are permanently.

Vsecured in place by the bolts 2t so that they i minate short of the walls I 5, to provide restricted passages for the hot gases and direct them along the surface of said walls. I

In order to distribute the heating eirect of the hot gases evenly throughout the several sections of the battery, the bafiies areconstructed to vary in size and thereby vary the restricted passages for the gases. Thus, said baiiies are progressively wider from the bottom toward the top and the passages become progressively more restricted,

so that as the heat becomes more dissipated toward the upper end oi the iiue, the new of gases will be more retarded. However, in some installations it may be found desirable to make an exception to the bottom baiiie, restricting its passage sumciently to retard the initial upward velocity of the hot gases due to its close proximity to the heater. i

In practice, wherein a varying number of sections may be built up, auxiliary extension bafiies may be provided to be applied to the standard baies. For example, wherein the standard baies are secured to the ue for a five-section battery, in event it is reduced to three sections, the auxiliary baiiies may be secured in place to reduce the passages so as to oier greater restriction to the passages of the gases.

In the foregoing, it will be observed that a simplified and eiective arrangement is provided for supplying the desired heating eect to each section or superimposed cage in a battery broeder,

A battery broeder comprising a plurality of superposed cage sections, each section having a compartment to be heated, a manifold ue common to all of said compartments and extending vertically adjacent to one side of said broeder, said ue being formed exteriorly of said compartments with one side thereof comprising a sheet metal wall common to said iiue and said compartments, a series of baie structures in said iiue progressively varying inrestrictive area, each baiie being positioned opposite the respective upper portion of a section, and xed to extend inwardly toward said common Wall but spaced therefrom a greater distance in respect to the lower than the upper compartments, and a source of hot gases positioned below the lower of said cage sections and under the lower open end of said i'lue to discharge said gases therethrough, whereby the heat carried thereby will be evenly distributed to said compartments through the common wall.

'WILLIAIW DOW HARVEY. 

